BROWN: Last century's libertarian still ahead of her time

Credo tells the fascinating story of libertarian thinker Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder.

However, Lane also now is recognized as her mother’s uncredited co-author.

Born to hardy pioneer stock, Lane grows up in a number of different locales in turn-of-the-century America. As an adult, she has a life-changing encounter with a state trooper, which contributes to her hatred of bureaucrats.

Illustrator/writer Peter Bagge’s style is recognizable instantly, particularly the rubbery arms of his characters. He does a magnificent job of demonstrating how Lane’s thinking evolves until she becomes a midarchist, someone who espouses a minimal form of government.

Lane also was a proto-feminist, who believed sex should be separated from marriage, a radical notion in 1917.

What emerges is a portrait of a sturdy, prickly individual who went her own way. Lane finds few places or people who accept her as she is.

At an early age, this towering figure realizes she alone can direct her destiny. “From now on, I’m going to embrace this world and squeeze every ounce of life out of it for as long as I live and breathe,” she vows.

Rose Wilder Lane isn’t an easy person to like.

What Bagge has fashioned is a layered picture of a woman who was so far ahead of her time, it’s fair to say in 2019 her moment is still decades away.